When Glossier CEO Kyle Leahy took over from founder Emily Weiss two years in the past, her mandate was clear: reinvent the millennial-coded direct-to-consumer darling for a brand new period. By all accounts, her technique—launching Glossier in Sephora shops and extra worldwide territories—has labored. The Sephora deal alone resulted in additional than $100 million in retail gross sales final yr, and Leahy says that the corporate is now worthwhile and “sustainable.”
Final week, the corporate doubled-down on the perfume class and unveiled two new perfumes, Rêve and Doux. The scents are companions to Glossier You, the top-selling fragrance at Sephora. Leahy got here on the Most Progressive Firms podcast to speak about launching new merchandise and constructing what she calls a contemporary legacy magnificence model.
You took over from a feminine founder who had an outsize presence. How did you method your position as her successor?
Emily and I had a deep connection proper from the beginning. We aligned on values, how we considered model constructing, how we considered folks. That connectivity between how she and I view companies and types has been a very constant thread all through. I joined as chief business officer first after which took the baton from her as CEO about six months after that. She continues to have a very vital position in inventive and marketing campaign growth and product growth and in design—issues that she actually is obsessed with. I can complement her expertise with operating the enterprise and scaling and driving our enterprise to the subsequent stage.
I first heard about Glossier after I was 23. I’m in my thirties now. How are you rising up along with your clients?
We’re on yr 10 of constructing a perpetually model. Manufacturers which have longevity should not simply connecting with only one demographic. They join with a mindset, they join on a values foundation and a deep emotional foundation. Glossier has tapped into that in a approach that I believe only a few manufacturers in any class have finished within the final decade. That’s why folks put on the sweatshirt of a magnificence model, or they line up for hours exterior of a retailer. They wish to be a part of one thing larger.
A giant contingent of our client base is millennial, however we’ve jumped to resonate with Gen Z and more and more Gen Alpha. We see that in issues like our social platforms. Instagram remains to be a very vital model platform for us and we proceed to see important development there. On the identical time, on TikTok, we’ve seen exponential development. We’ve gone from a couple of billion views on #Glossier to about 3 billion since we launched in Sephora [in February 2023].
Do you concentrate on updating your branding because it grows up?
One of many issues that we do exceptionally nicely at Glossier is transfer on the pace of tradition. We’re within the zeitgeist, whether or not that’s by way of our strategic partnerships just like the one we’ve with the WNBA or the way in which that we do our social affect work or the way in which that we’re doing our campaigns. Millennial pink was due to Glossier and due to how vital this model has been to the final decade.
Glossier launched in Sephora in 2023. Why did it is advisable to transfer past your direct-to-consumer enterprise mannequin?
Glossier was on the forefront of bringing magnificence on-line and exhibiting that you possibly can actually transition an editorial and social platform and social content material right into a commerce expertise. However direct-to-consumer is just not our price proposition: Our group and our clients don’t store with Glossier as a result of it’s direct-to-consumer. We simply occurred to be DTC. Channels and clients evolve, and listening to our group, it grew to become clear that we had an enormous alternative to convey Glossier to extra folks and go the place they’re procuring.
When Glossier first launched in 2014, the concept of being skin-first or “no make-up make-up” appeared actually recent. Now numerous related manufacturers exist, similar to Benefit. How do you stand out from these rivals?
Most manufacturers in magnificence begin as a single class. They’re make-up or skincare, after which perhaps they transfer into different classes. We had been constructed from the start as a multi-category model. So we make make-up, skincare, perfume, physique care, and merch. We now have transcended magnificence. We’re a way of life model.
What’s your technique with regards to increasing into completely different classes?
Perfume is likely one of the most enjoyable elements of our enterprise. Glossier You was launched in 2017, so has been out there for nearly seven years. The perfume is constructed to be deliberately lacking its prime observe, so it smells just a little completely different on everybody. I believe it’s completely positioned: We used to promote a bottle each 40 seconds, now it’s each 20 seconds. We’re constructing the subsequent perfume home for the subsequent era and actually enthusiastic about what that may imply for Glossier.
Each magnificence founder I communicate to tells me that if there’s one magnificence model that would IPO, it might be Glossier. What’s the monetary way forward for the corporate?
We’re constructing the subsequent perpetually magnificence model, which implies we’re enjoying the lengthy recreation. We’re constructing a enterprise that has runway and has constant, sustainable, and worthwhile development. With that method, numerous alternatives open up, and we’re all the time interested by what that appears like.
Is Glossier worthwhile?
We’re worthwhile and [the business] is sustainable.
Glossier has a protracted historical past of participating with its followers. In an announcement about reverting again to the unique components of your balm dotcom lip balm, you included unfavorable social media feedback about its reformulation. How do you interact along with your group?
We had been born of, by, and for the Into the Gloss group. The weblog that Emily wrote that preceded Glossier may be very a lot at our roots. Our group is basically energetic in product creation, whether or not it was by way of a Slack channel within the early days or us listening to our social group and suggestions on platforms like Instagram and TikTok or Reddit. Not everybody will all the time agree, however I typically say to our groups what number of manufacturers would kill to have this many individuals eager to have a dialog about them. A part of our superpower is that we hear very actively to the great and the unhealthy and we take it into our product technique.